Samuel Goldwyn Films Dakota Fanning plays a young woman who gets a lot of financial assistance from Richard Gere's character.
Richard Gere is the giver who keeps on giving.
Your husband needs a job? Gere's already got it lined up. Looking for a house? Here's one, free and clear. A couple of hundred thousand left in med-school loans? Just let him write a check.
That's his shtick in "The Benefactor." And he's so nice that at first he comes off as creepy.
That's because the object of all his affection is Dakota Fanning, the daughter of an old family friend and a cutie-pie a third his age. He beams at her and calls her "Poodles." Then he writes her another check.
He's got ulterior motives, right?
Dakota Fanning, Theo James and Richard Gere connect in "The Benefactor."
No, just a massive case of guilt. And, as a bonus, a raging addiction to painkillers.
We can tell from the beginning it's just a countdown until Poodles tells the big-hearted meddler to take a walk, or he crashes and burns. But watching the time tick by is not that much fun.
Admittedly, the picture - which debuted at the last Tribeca Film Festival, under the title of "Franny," the nickname of Gere's character - is nicely photographed and set in the pretty environs of Philadelphia.
Even prettier are Fanning and Theo James, who play Poodles and her lucky-duck husband.
Samuel Goldwyn Films In his new movie, Richard Gere has a painkiller problem.
But the story never dramatizes exactly what's so terrible about having a mogul give you millions of dollars. Sure, he's controlling, but for that kind of payout, hey, please, control away. And the addiction angle feels like a second story, grafted on to try and keep our interest.
Old silver-fox Gere looks great. He's almost embarrassingly charming — which is the point — but there's not much else here. We're left waiting for shocks which never come.
Well, there's one, when Gere demonstrates just how far an addict will go to get a morphine prescription. It involves a bit of grim self-surgery, and is definitely in the category of "Kids, don't try this at home." Other than that, though, the film is mostly in a daze of its own.
And one gift that's worth returning.
References
- ^ movie reviews (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ richard gere (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ dakota fanning (www.nydailynews.com)
